Teammates, coaches impressed with contributions from new 'catalysts'

B.C. Lions Byron Parker (left) and Lin-J Shell (right) work out during the team's practice in Surrey on Sept. 11, 2012.

Photograph by: Ric Ernst
, PNG

It’s hard to wrap your head around the fact that Byron Parker and Lin-J Shell brought a winning attitude with them when they came over from the Toronto Argonauts, a team that finished 6-12, 9-9, 3-15 and 4-14 in the past four CFL seasons.

But their new B.C. teammates, such as Lions return specialist Tim Brown, swear that it’s true.

“They’ve been big catalysts for us,” Brown said Wednesday. “They’ve been so influential in our return game. After practice, before practice, during practice, they’re sitting with coach Chuck (special teams coach McMann) and myself, saying, ‘Let’s do this, let’s change that, what if we set it up this way?’ Those are the two guys creating the blocks for me in the back, as I’m catching the ball. I’m running off those two guys’ blocks.”

Brown, perhaps more than any Lion, is a little sad to see that his team has no more regular-season games scheduled against the Montreal Alouettes.

He had a combined 150 return yards, including a kickoff of 54 yards, which set up B.C.’s first touchdown, in last Saturday’s 43-10 win over Montreal. Eight days earlier, Brown piled up 289 yards on 15 touches against the Alouettes, even though the Lions lost the game, 30-25.

In lockstep with the rest of the Lions’ special teams play, Brown has picked his game up over the past month. He is bursting upfield like a scalded cat, finding lanes that didn’t seem to be there before. And he has a simple explanation for it: Fear.

“I’ve been praying. Praying to keep my job,” Brown said. “In this league, it’s about ‘What have you done for me lately?’ I’ve been told they need more production out of me to help the team win. And special teams plays a vital part of that. The blocking has been there. But, as a returner, it sometimes takes a while to find the creases and hit ’em. It’s starting to come together.”

For the better part of three months, the Lions have been first in defence, okay on offence and charitably undistinguished on special teams.

But all three phases are getting up-to-speed as the team veers with a vengeance into the second half of the season.

Paul McCallum kicked a last-play field goal to beat the Blue Bombers 20-17 on Aug. 24, 14 special teams players have recorded tackles in the past four games, and the Lions have not allowed a punt return longer than 15 yards, since their Aug. 6 game in Toronto against the Argonauts, a team they’ll face for the second time Saturday, a 4 p.m. kickoff at BC Place Stadium.

To be correct, the team’s downfield coverage let up in the waning seconds of Saturday’s win over the Als, after Victor Anderson returned the kickoff 70 yards following a touchdown that put the Lions ahead 43-10. But it was of no consequence, in a game already decided, and the long gain was wiped out anyway, because of a holding penalty.

“It’s everything,” said Lions head coach Mike Benevides. “It’s Paul (McCallum) getting his swing back, it’s the cover teams falling in line and understanding each other, it’s Tim’s returns. All three facets are giving us consistent games. When you talk about special teams, it’s the soldiers up front — blockers, returners. You’re not going to get big plays every single time on special teams. But, last week, we had multiples.”

Parker and Shell earned their reputations as all-star defensive backs in the Toronto system, but perhaps lesser appreciated is their attention to detail on special teams. Despite the Argos’ dreary win-loss records the past few seasons, the team’s upside has been its special teams play, personified by lightning-in-a-bottle returner Chad Owens and masterminded by coordinator Mike O’Shea.

“We took pride in our special teams in Toronto, and we’ve brought that over here,” Shell explained. “O’Shea groomed us to be who we are. We make sure we cover everybody’s back. Coach O’Shea told us there’s only one thing that matters in special teams — and that’s care. I think Coach Chuck (McMann) was pretty surprised, when we came over here, how much we care.”

“Oh, man, those guys are leaders,” Brown says of Shell and Parker. “Before the [first] Montreal game, they got us all together with Coach Chuck, and we went over film. ‘Look here,’ they told him, ‘this guy is taking a play off.’ They’re able to see things and bring them to people’s attention. They put in a lot of extra work to make it right.”

With the bar set high, there is no turning back now — and mediocrity definitely is unacceptable in any game involving the peerless Owens. He not only leads the CFL in combined yards (punt, kickoff and missed field goal returns) with 1,608 but he is also second in receiving yards (824) behind Montreal’s S.J. Green.

His season started with a steady dose of cynicism that he could handle both jobs. Apparently Owens can.

“You’ve got to think about your own performance,” Brown said. “But, in a sense, it’s a competition thing. It (comparisons with Owens) can take you into another direction: ‘If he does something, I’ve got to answer back.’ But you don’t want to go there. I just want to be better than I was last game.”

And, in that respect, he was more than enough for the Alouettes to handle.

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